davipt wrote:and due to their machine automatic mapping there were huge mistakes like assigning shields to wrong roads when a freeway ends and google decides to keep the freeway name all the way forward.

Google does this in the USA too, maybe not with Interstates, but definitely with US Highways.

davipt wrote:I have to be honest and admit that after some six month being broken, it got fixed again some weeks ago, but this is one of the cases I was refering: http://goo.gl/maps/haC21

In the US, it's not such a major problem, which is to be expected since Google is based here, but there are still problems. Like US-90 in Mobile, AL: http://goo.gl/maps/XpPDM

US-90 comes from the west along Government St; Alabama Route 16 is Alabama's internal unsigned designation for US-90 through the state. All's well until the intersection with S Broad. US-90 E turns to the north up Broad, which turns into Beauregard as it curves eastward again. 90 E then turns to the north again along I-165 N, soon exiting to the east along Bay Bridge Rd. It crosses the bridge then heads south, where it joins with US-98 near the interchange with I-10. That's all fine and good.

US-90 does not, however, continue east on Government St and through the Bankhead Tunnel, but Google has shielded it as such (and as Alabama 16) anyway. This portion of Government Street from Broad, east through the tunnel, and to the intersection with US-90 is actually a portion of US-98. Bing and MapQuest have this correct.

Further, the portion of US-90 which runs along Broad, Beauregard, I-165, Bay Bridge, and back down the other side is also designated US-98 Truck. Google does not mention this. Bing and MapQuest are again correct.

mr1492 wrote:I am also concerned as an iPhone user that Waze will switch to an Android-centric system. Nothing has been said but I can see Google pushing the developers to make the Android based system a little "better" than their competitors application.

Waze started out as an "Android-centric system", back in 2009. It was out for Android months before it made it to iOS, and Android development was ahead. It took a year or so for iOS to catch up and then take the lead.

Google's iOS app library is pretty strong. There's no reason for them to stiff their iOS userbase now.

henslok wrote:And, frankly, I was switching between Google Maps, Copilot and Waze on my holidays due to incorrect maps (Waze), no mobile reception (Waze, Google) and... actually the Copilot was the best - no problem on the maps, no relay on mobile data (only for the traffic info).

Copilot's maps are pretty awful in the US in my experience. And while it's good that they don't use any data, they also take up a lot of space on the phone.

edsonajj wrote:What has been true is that Google apps are just "a bit better" on Android than on iOS, for example… maps. I guess we iOS users just worry that new functions will be added to Android first ant then take their time to make it to iOS. The way it is right now, with almost simultaneous feature releases, is my preferred one.

Well, yes, but Google typically has a pretty big head-start on things like this. Android has had a fully-functional Google Maps app for years. iOS, until last year, had an extremely functionally limited Apple-developed maps app which used Google's maps. Even after that was gone, it took Google a couple months before they released their Google Maps app for the iPhone, so they've been playing catch-up with themselves ever since.

zappee wrote:Well, that's because they didn't have any service like YT before. Waze is a direct competitor to Google Maps.

They did and do. It's called Google Video, now Google Videos.

Google Video is not the same kind of "platform" that YouTube is, rather functioning principally as a search engine for videos hosted elsewhere, but the same could be said of Google Maps. Google Maps uses mostly third-party map data and functions as an agent which can search and give directions using that map data. Waze, like YouTube, is its own platform, with its own content. Google Maps has its own routing engine, yeah, but Google Video has its own video player, too.

Hm, IIRC, at its inception, Google Videos may have been a standalone platform, but long before the YouTube acquisition Google added the search engine functionality. It would present Google Video videos alongside videos from MySpace, Dailymotion, and other sites.

shirlig wrote:[list][*]We are looking to expand our data schema to improve the level of details of our map to be on par with Google's. To do that, we plan to include other google parameters like number of lanes, legal speed, walking, bicycles parking etc. these will be open for editing and will be the base for future services like max speed warning, walking directions etc. Moreover, we might also add more road types to the editor. Of course all of the above are still very initial plans and not something that will happen in a day or two